CureVac expands vaccine manufacturing with Bayer and GSK

CUREVAC, which is developing an mRNA vaccine for Covid-19, will boost its manufacturing capacity via new agreements with Bayer and GSK.

CureVac already has an agreement with Bayer which will support the development and supply of CureVac’s mRNA candidate CVnCoV. Bayer has now announced that it is planning to manufacture 160m doses of CVnCoV in 2022.

Stefan Oelrich, President of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division, said: “Although we have not previously produced vaccines, we hold strong expertise in the development of biotech products. Since the announcement of our alliance between Bayer and CureVac earlier this year, we have diligently assessed our ability to further contribute with end-to-end manufacturing.

“I am glad to report today that we have the necessary skills and capabilities at Bayer to manufacture CureVac’s mRNA-based vaccine. We are therefore planning to add an additional 160m doses of CureVac’s vaccine in 2022 to further expand their supply network and overall capacity using the manufacturing network of Bayer. First commercial product from this expansion may already be available towards the end of this year.”

CureVac has also announced a new collaboration with GSK to support the manufacture of up to 100m doses of CVnCoV in 2021. In addition, the collaboration aims to develop next generation mRNA Covid-19 vaccines capable of dealing with multiple emerging variants of the virus in the one vaccine. The development programme will start immediately, with a target of 2022 for the multi-variant vaccine.

Franz-Werner Haas, Chief Executive Officer of CureVac, said: “We are very pleased to build on our existing relationship with GSK with a new agreement to jointly develop next generation mRNA-based vaccines, in addition to our current candidate CVnCoV. With the help of GSK’s proven vaccine expertise, we are equipping ourselves to tackle future health challenges with novel vaccines.”

CVnCoV entered phase 3 clinical trials in December and interim data is expected in the first quarter of 2021.